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Gemsy81 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1500
Benefits................................ 82
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3082

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 317
Rent.................................... 1300
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 165
Electricity............................. 67
Gas..................................... 0
Oil.....................................
Water rates............................. 25
Telephone (land line)................... 35
Mobile phone............................ 70
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 35
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................
Petrol/diesel...........................
Road tax................................ 25
Car Insurance........................... 75
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 100
Other child related expenses............ 20
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 35
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund..........................
Total monthly expenses.................. 2330

These are what I would call our day to day 'essentials', on top of this, we are currently allocating ourselves £200 each per month, and with that we pay for anything we want, so gifts, drinks, meals, hairdressers etc etc. So that brings it to 2730. So ideally I think I would like to pay us more, certainly in the short term to get these credit cards gone. I will see if I can have a tweak of the work budget....or we will just have to work even harder to earn more money and increase the budget!

A couple of areas for improvement that I can see, and I welcome any input.
- Mobile bill is high, I know. I have an iPhone because it does sync in with all my Apple technology which is quite important for my job. We have full data packages which we probably don't need as mobile signal is so sketchy we always end up using wifi - I could look at this!
- Sky TV....currently paying 12 a month for a second box in our bedroom, on a TV which we barely switch on (more of those bad decisions coming out of the woodwork!)
- Childcare will go to zero from July, my little one will start school in September, and he'll be off over the summer holidays and I will work from home.
- Currently have two cars, we are trying to go down to one but it is proving very very difficult to juggle work and childcare etc. My insurance is very high as I had not had my own insurance for years and had to start from zero no claims bonus, but that is starting to go up again.
- My life insurance is high unfortunately due to some health problems
- Fuel paid through work

Where are your debt repayments out of this? I can see the HP but not the rest? Can you manage the minimums out of the remaining £352 - and any opps for overpayment?

Like Mogueline - I think if you can reduce your personal splash pots that will be helpful - so if you both had £150 a month - that would be £100 to allocate in different directions. You don't have anything in your EF yet - and you don't have a great deal in the motor maintenance pot (ideally you should be saving for maintenance and to help purchase next vehicle in XX number of years)

Congrats on the £7.5K. Probably not the best advice, but sometimes this debt busting thing is all about motivation. Why don't you just pay off £5K from debts, and save £2.5K for house deposit - and then find a way to add to that each month (perhaps payment a day or tilly tidying?)- so you are both paying off your debts and making headways in a house deposit.

Good luck - subscribing xxx

Gemsy81

Outside of London, we live in one of the most expensive areas in the country, and we are so happy where we are - the ideal would be if our landlord would sell us this house! So I'd rather lose something else than move. It is ideal for our business and for school. It is walking distance for me to school, but for a 4 year old I think it would be hard every day (about 3 miles). The alternative is to cycle with him on the back, but I would have to find an alternative route as the main one is too dangerous IMO.

I haven't put my debt repayments down, as I am trying to work out how much we can throw at them. We are self employed, and up to now have been paying ourselves around £4k per month - I've had a big budget overhaul at work and decided to give myself a pay cut, but there is some wriggle room there. The minimum repayments are well within our 'surplus' cash.

Today I am going to call Sky and cancel 1.Our international calls - OH has family abroad but they all have mobiles and the offer only includes landlines so it is useless to us (which we discovered after one phonecall cost £70!). 2. Cancel that second box - absolutely pointless!

Also going to add up both Paypal pots from the selling so far, that will be a really good motivator too.

Gemsy81

Good idea re. the splash pots. I've been quite generous as they do include everything...hair cuts etc. but I will see how we have done this month and assess. I know OH has not used much but he is trying to save for a trip in October which I have flatly refused to give him any money towards! Believe me, this is a big step forward getting him to be this responsible! lol

[Deleted User]

Those are all great things to do.
I totally understand about the house, it's about what you can sacrifice without compromising overall happiness.

Starmummy

You are doing really well. The 7.5k should give you a major boost. i'd do as others have suggested. pay 5k off the debts with the highest interest then maybe split the rest between house deposit savings and an EF.

It's difficult getting that balance between work budget and home budget I should imagine.

On the one car. My partners car broke down earlier this year, it was old and not worth fixing so we decided to just not replace it at the moment. He uses my car to get to work and I walk Star Child to school and myself to work ( I walk 8-10k a day) my daughter loves walking to school and the fresh air is so good for my mental well being as well as my waistline. We have no plans to replace his car in the foreseeable as on the odd occasion I need my car he can cycle to work or get a lift with a work colleague.

I agree dump the sky box and look at maybe going sim only when your mobile contract is up for renewal. I did this earlier this year I have an iPhone 6 anyway and sim only with lots of data and unlimited calls and texts is £8 a month...also if your mobile is used for work should you not put it as a business expense or claim an allowance for it...same as any part of the house that is used for business etc. do you have an accountant that does your books? They should be able to advise you on this/ should be encouraging you to take these entitlements.

Gemsy81

Doing some to-ing and fro-ing of money today. Cheque for £2100 has cleared, so I've just transferred that into my current account. Also cashed out £270 from Paypal.
I'm now just sitting here looking at my balance, and trying to enjoy it before I start paying stuff! Does anyone else do that when they have money but is not really 'theirs' because it is needed to pay off money you have already borrowed?! So for half an hour, I'm going to pretend I have lots of money to make myself feel better!

LO and I had sausages from the butchers from 1.70 along with left over mash from the Shepherds Pie I did earlier in the week, so am feeling suitably angelic about dinner. Doing an online food shop tonight, as we need to restock, and I would rather do it online so I can be more careful about how much I'm spending. Doing so well with the grocery budget I don't want to ruin it!

Gemsy81

Right, that is everything balanced on YNAB. Frightening how quickly things can add up. Counting every penny as I am....

Things that had to be paid out of our windfall (I forgot I paid all the credit cards already out of it - it just made things easier)

Lloyds cc -£250.00
Barclaycard-£200.00
Final asset bill -£713.14
Parking fine!-£70.00
BT Old Bill clearing-£14.13
Car tyres - £698!!

Leaves me with 6360 to make a start with, so it will be 3000 once I've paid off the Barclaycard with the high interest rate. I feel like I should maybe keep that aside for now just to make me feel a little safer. And crack on with selling/earning extra etc to start clearing the other two.

I can safely say now though, that I have no big expected bills (car is up to date with serving/MOT/tyres), I am not late or overdue to pay anything and I am in a good place to crack on with this.

On the budgeting front.

-Just did another weekly shop for under £60, and that included a big pack of dishwasher tabs.
-Due to a few small bits of money and the referrer fee I am now £430 ahead of myself for next month
- I have spent £90 of my £200 pot. With Father's Day this weekend, I'm going to have to allocate some of the remaining to gifts but won't be going mad.

ETA - Payment for one Barclaycard this month came from the business account to pay off a business expense, so the min payments (and more) has been made, but no 'dent' in the balance as it were.

Gemsy81

Feel naughty for having missed posting yesterday, but had a bit of a down day and couldn't think of how to put it down on 'paper'.

OH and I have had a chat this morning....we have a 5 day very cheap (and already paid for) holiday booked for July. The plan was to extend this into a two week holiday by booking something else. He was very keen to do this, he thinks we work very hard (we do) and deserve a proper break. I have been thinking for a few weeks, we can't afford to do anything more than the original 5 days. I've now convinced him that this is the case, and we have agreed it is a year of frugality, therefore holidays will have to wait. So we will take the two weeks off work, but we will come home at the end of the 5 days and come up with other (free/cheap) stuff to do as a family...ideas welcome! So far I have come up with a trip to the beach with a picnic! I don't want to use all my ideas up in the first two weeks of the summer holidays though!

Father's Day has taken £20 off my personal splash pot, which I thought was quite good for two sets of presents/cards. Coffee and cake with my mum this morning has taken another £10. So I will not be doing any splashing next week! Who knows, maybe OH will treat me!

Tomorrow I will be at home and plan on gardening, cooking and baking....which I am really looking forward to

beanielou

Good idea to only have the 5 days holiday 'away'.
A year will go in so fast.

[Deleted User]

Well done on reaching the holiday decision! It's those kind of decisions that just have to be made when doubling down on paying off debt. And think about how much you'll enjoy a holiday once you've cleared your debt and can pay for it with saved up/budgeted money that is actually yours.